Pro Politics with Zac McCrary Ambassador & Senator Carol Moseley Braun, the first Black Woman Elected to the US Senate
There are few more historic political figures than former Senator & Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun - the first Black womzn elected to the US Senate and the first ever Black Democratic Senator. In this conversation, she talks growing up on Chicago's South Side, marching with Martin Luther King at age 16, memories of figures like Richard J. Daley and Harold Washington, the start of her own political career, her history-making underdog Senate win in 1992, memorable moments and lessons learned during her time in the Senate, her tenure as Ambassador to New Zealand, & much more from a truly iconic political life.
IN THIS EPISODE…
Memories of growing up on Chicago’s South Side…
Early memories of Chicago politics and the local labor movement…
Growing up in the Chicago of Richard J. Daley…
A 16-year-old Carol Moseley Braun marches next to Martin Luther King Jr…
Memories of her long relationship with the iconic Harold Washington…
How Harold Washington “saved” her political career…
The college classmate (and now DC uber lobbyist) who jumpstarted her first political race…
Recollections of the Illinois legislature of the 1970s and 80s…
How being the target of the Chicago Machine actually helped her career…
The amazing story of her history-making underdog US Senate race in 1992…
Surprises and difficulties in the early days after being elected to the US Senate…
The Senators who served as her mentors…
The story of facing down Jesse Helms over the Confederate Flag…
Her relationship with then-Senator Joe Biden…
Her proudest accomplishment in the Senate…
Memories of her tenure as Ambassador to New Zealand…
The definitive Carol Moseley Braun advice for visitors to Chicago…
AND 98-2, the Action Party, Al the Pal, apolitical medical technicians, Bob Bennett, the Black Belt, Barbara Boxer, brickbats, Brown vs Board, George HW Bush, Robert Byrd, Jane Byrne, carveouts, the civil rights imperative, Bill Clinton, Michael Corleone, cumulative voting, the Cutback Amendment, the Daley Machine, demigods, dirty tricks, Alan Dixon, the Dream Team, the DuSable Museum of African American History, Diane Feinstein, Gage Park, Hansberry vs Lee, Howell Heflin, Anita Hill, Independent Democrats, Nancy Kassebaum, Ted Kennedy, Kiwis, Celinda Lake, Landslide Washington, Pat Leahy, Thurgood Marshall, John McCain, Pat Moynihan, Dick Neuhaus, nuclear submarines, Barack Obama, old bulls, Claiborne Pell, Tony Podesta, Michael Shakman, semi-humans, Paul Simon, Clarence Thomas, Transcendentalists, welfare reform, the WWI Memorial, the Willard Hotel, the Year of the Woman… & more!